I have a cornucopia

Chapter 245 The Awakening of the Empress

Amidst Her Highness the Regent's screams, Prince Yang suddenly jumped out and appeared beside her in an instant at a speed that broke the 100-meter record. Her Highness the Regent instinctively threw herself into his arms.

"There are monsters!"

His Royal Highness the Regent said in horror.

At the same time, he pointed backwards.

Yang Feng......

"Zhang Hanlin, you brought a black slave here without telling me in advance?"

He shouted with a sullen face.

Then he quickly patted Her Royal Highness the Princess on the back.

"Don't be afraid, Your Highness. He is just a black slave, an uncivilized savage from Africa. He is just a little darker. He has been kidnapped and sold as a slave by the Western barbarians. He is not a monster. If you don't believe me, I can prove it to you."

He said it very gently.

"Really?"

Her Royal Highness the Princess raised her head and said pitifully.

Then she came to her senses and quickly left his arms with a blushing face.

At this time, Zhang Jiayu also woke up, and he quickly apologized in panic.

He really ignored this problem. The Portuguese used black slaves in general, including in wars. When the Dutch attacked Macau, they relied on the bravery of black slaves. The garrison composed of Portuguese and local residents of Macau caused heavy damage to the Dutch, forcing them to retreat and give up the attack. Therefore, one-third of the Portuguese mercenaries who trained the Guangdong gentry were black slaves. Zhang Jiayu from Dongguan was of course very clear about this and knew that these were slaves, but he forgot that the regent was a young girl and had never seen these guys who were obviously monsters.

"Your Highness, the King of the East Sea is right. These are the servants brought by the Western Barbarians. I was not able to inform you in advance."

he said quickly.

Her Royal Highness the Princess was still somewhat frightened as she looked at the completely bewildered black slave.

Yang Feng patted her shoulder, then walked straight over. In the blank gazes of the black slave and the surrounding Portuguese mercenaries, he threw the scrap steel axe into the black slave's arms. The latter caught it instinctively, but fell forward with a scream the next moment...

The giant scrap steel axe weighs more than 200 pounds!
The black slave, who had never imagined that this thing was so heavy, was thrown to the ground.

The next moment, Yang Feng stepped on his back, and then he had a knife in his hand, which he stabbed into his neck. Amid the chaotic shouting of the Portuguese mercenaries, he stepped on the slave who struggled desperately, but in vain, as if he was being stepped on by an elephant, and cut off his head like cutting fruit. Blood spurted out and flowed on the ground of the training ground. The slave twitched, but in the blink of an eye, he stopped moving. Yang Feng picked up his head, kicked the dead body on the ground in the astonished eyes of the mercenaries, and then walked straight to Her Royal Highness the Princess.

"Look, nothing's different."

He said.

Her Royal Highness the Princess finally returned to normal.

She also realized that as a monarch, her behavior just now would cause many people to think...

A monarch must be powerful.

Even though she is a young girl, she must remain as strong as possible, at least not be frightened by a savage. A monarch who is frightened by a savage will not be able to gain submission.

"It's true that there is no difference. However, it is a desecration of the Xiaoling Mausoleum if these barbarians set foot in the capital. Let's kill all the barbarians brought by the Western Barbarians. No more barbarians are allowed to set foot in the capital in the future."

She looked at the swaying heads in front of her and spoke with forced calmness.

"My minister obeys."

Yang Feng said.

Then he glanced at Zhang Jiayu.

The latter also wanted to explain that after all, these people were hired for training and they really didn’t do anything!

They are really wronged!
"Zhang Hanlin, you are also well-read and should follow the teachings of the saints. Do you know the word 'loyalty'?"

Yang Feng shouted with a sullen face.

Zhang Jiayu looked helplessly at the officer beside him, who immediately led the militia to the black slaves behind. The latter were not stupid. Although they did not understand the language, they knew something was wrong. They drew out all kinds of weapons without hesitation and prepared to resist, but it was useless. The turtledove guns in the hands of the militias around them were pointed at them. Then these black slaves knelt down without hesitation, one by one, lying on the ground crying and kowtowed to the girl in front of them for mercy...

"Although he has never been educated, he knows how to kowtow and beg for mercy."

Her Royal Highness the Princess smiled and said.

"Your Highness, even wild animals know how to seek benefits and avoid harm. It is better to spare their lives, which will also show our Ming Dynasty's intention to be lenient and gracious to all the barbarians."

Zhang Jiayu said quickly.

Princess……

"Let's just kill them. They scared me. I can't just let it go like this."

She said calmly.

There is a bit of my demeanor: whoever dares to make me unhappy for a moment, I will make him unhappy for the rest of his life.

Zhang Jiayu finally gave up. After all, he didn't care much about the lives of these black slaves. They were mercenaries, and the Guangdong Elders Association had already bought their lives by paying them money to hire them.

In fact, even those Portuguese mercenaries were only slightly dissatisfied...

Of course, they could only be dissatisfied. One of them even tried to pick up Yang Feng's scrap steel axe, but then gave up.

It was totally beyond his ability.

Then a series of gunshots rang out and the black slaves fell down.

Of course, this was just an accident. Her Royal Highness the Princess immediately continued with her flag-raising ceremony. However, the atmosphere on the scene was obviously different this time. The soldiers who had been kneeling perfunctorily before all knelt very firmly. They had already understood that the person in front of them was not a weak-looking girl, but a monarch who could truly decide their life and death. They had to face her as if they were really facing a monarch.

The Guangdong militia led by Zhang Jiayu successively took over the dragon flag handed over by the regent.

They were also divided into three battalions.

Guangzhou Camp, Chaozhou Camp, Lianzhou Camp.

The name was also randomly chosen by Yang Feng. They were originally very dissatisfied. Chaozhou Camp was fine, after all, Guangdong is nothing more than Cantonese and Chaoshan, but what the hell was Lianzhou Camp?

Among the ten prefectures in Guangdong, Lianzhou Prefecture ranks among the bottom three.

Besides, these militiamen were not even from Chaozhou. Chaozhou did pay, but the Guangdong Elders' Association was responsible for hiring the militiamen. In order to solve the language problem, they were all hired from Cantonese. That is to say, there were a few Chaozhou generals among the main generals. Lianzhou did not even have any generals. What the Lianzhou gentry paid for was just 3,000 Guangdong militiamen stationed in Lianzhou to help the Lianzhou gentry suppress the unruly people and the mountain people at the same time.

So why is it called Lianzhou Camp?
Yang Feng’s answer was simple…

"I like it. Besides, you will be satisfied if I call them Huizhou Camp. How can you be more dissatisfied?"

Okay, that explanation makes sense.

Indeed, if it is called Huizhou Camp, then those in Zhaoqing will be even more dissatisfied.

They are all top six prefectures, why? There is nothing to say about Guangzhou. Chaozhou ranks second in the total number of Jinshi, which is acceptable. After all, it is a far ahead second, and the rest of the prefectures can only compare with its fraction. However, Zhaoqing has more Jinshi than Huizhou. Of course, Huizhou will definitely not agree to be called Zhaoqing Camp. Our total number of Jinshi is indeed not as good as Zhaoqing, but in terms of population, our per capita number of Jinshi is second.

What’s more, Qiongzhou Prefecture is watching and bullying us, the four lower prefectures, right?

Are they all from your upper six prefectures?

Neither satisfied.

Therefore, there is no need to argue about naming it Lianzhou.

It has to be said that there is no such contradiction in Nanzhili, where there is simply one prefecture and one camp.

In short, the eldest, the second, and one of the last three in Guangdong were named the Third Battalion.

Then the rest are Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, including the three camps of Northern Zhili, Shanxi and Henan composed of exiles.

The commander of Shanxi Battalion was Fu Qingzhu. Although it was hard to say how good he was at fighting, after all, the real Fu Qingzhu was not a martial arts master, but since Yang Feng had named him and his teacher Yuan Jixian was a respected figure, naturally no one objected. However, the three battalions had less than 1,000 people. It was not that they could not find more people, as there were still many people who fled from the north to the south. The key was that they all had to bear their own military expenses, and they could not afford to support more people. Shanxi Battalion relied on fundraising from the surviving Shanxi merchants in Huaiyang.

The latter were very enthusiastic about this, but they were no longer the same as they were before, and they also had to consider the clans that were still in Shanxi, so they dared not give too much.

It's enough to feed a few hundred people.

In this way, they were indeed involved, and even if Wu Sangui knew about it, a few hundred people were not worth mentioning, and he would not be so angry as to drag out their clansmen and bleed them.

Of course, in practice the result is that everyone despises them.

The military expenses of the Henan Camp were purely open to private donations. There were still a lot of people from Henan who moved south, especially the scholars, who were eager to fight back. After all, the days of living under the roof of others in the south made them more and more eager for the happiness of having houses and fields in the past.

The commander of the Henan Camp was Shi Dewei, the adopted son of Shi Kefa.

As for the question of his father and son’s place of origin, just ignore it.

Shi Gebu died a martyr for his country, so this Northern Expedition could be considered a comfort to Shi Gebu. Besides, his ancestral home was Kaifeng, which was considered Henan in that era. The military in the Ming Dynasty all recognized their ancestral home, and Qi Jiguang even considered himself a distant descendant of Qi Jiguang. So Shi Gebu was of course also a native of Xiangfu, and Shi Dewei was his adopted son, so of course he was counted as one of them.

Moreover, this adopted son of his was not the kind of adopted son of a servant, but was truly included in the family tree.

The situation in the Northern Zhili Camp was more complicated. After all, most of the Northern Zhili gentry lived happily in the Qing Dynasty. The scholars who went south also had complicated feelings towards the Qing Dynasty. They knew very well that if they really fought back in the Northern Expedition, their clans would be killed one by one. But if they didn't fight back, their clans would have no hope at all. At least if they fought back, they could contact their clans when necessary and let them turn from darkness to light. This was how the noble families operated.

At most, a few people will be put forward to take the blame.

Of course, these have nothing to do with Yang Feng. No matter what you are thinking, just charge forward honestly on the battlefield.

After the flag-raising ceremony, the 40,000 Northern Expedition troops, together with those who had been awarded flags earlier, went to Longjiang Pass in batches amid the cheers of the people. There they boarded ships to cross the river to Pukou, and then marched towards Quanjiao. Next, they cooperated with Gao Jie's troops attacking Chuzhou, and Zhu Datian's troops attacking Xuyi to complete the push against the Qing army's eastern front.

night.

Under the Lion Rock.

"interesting!"

Prince Yang, who was accompanying the princess on a night tour of Nanjing, looked at the Golden Terrace in front of him with great interest.

Of course, the real name should be the "Terrace for the Citizens to Speak Out", but this certainly did not conform to folk customs, so it was called the "Golden Terrace" just a few days after its completion.

Because Nanjing has now lifted the curfew...

But the city gate still has to be closed.

In short, the people in the city, without the curfew, have already regarded this place as an important entertainment venue. The grand occasion when Duke Yansheng personally led the great scholars to debate the scriptures has long ceased to exist. After all, the great scholars came here to complete their tasks. After completing their tasks, who would come here? Isn't it better for them to teach their students in their own academies? They are not like Wang Gen, who is a showman. There is no need to come here to show off their knowledge. Some young scholars like to come here to show off.

What if you become famous?
So at this moment, a Confucian scholar on the stage is shouting at the top of his lungs, saying that women have been behaving more and more recklessly recently, and some are walking openly on the streets without proper clothing.

Some women watching the fun in the audience looked down upon him.

"Nowadays, there are so many people who are trying to attract attention. Yesterday, someone went to the top and said that a Senate should be built in the capital. In the future, the prime minister will be selected by the Senate. From the governor to the county magistrate, all localities will be selected by the elders and the local wise men, and they don't need to go through the court anymore."

Kou Baimen said while waving a small round fan.

"What does the emperor do?"

Yang Feng said.

There are a lot of beautiful women around him.

Including Madam Qian, who had been helping the Regent compile books in the palace, Bian Yujing, who was pulled in by Kou Baimen to help (of course, she was still wearing a Taoist robe), and even Dong Qiongying, who had just become the Regent's bodyguard.

These were the ones who accompanied the Regent on his incognito tours.

And it looks like they have been out incognito many times like this.

Even the roadside stalls where you can buy snacks have become a habit.

"Of course the emperor stays in the palace, and only comes out to offer sacrifices to the heaven when necessary. It's almost the same now. Ma Shiying even has to write a letter to the Elders Council to appoint a county magistrate. If the Elders Council says the person is not suitable, he will be replaced as quickly as a dog."

Kou Baimen said.

"Don't be rude to Lord Ma. He is also considering the overall situation. If he doesn't do this, the new official he sent will encounter bandits again."

Her Royal Highness the Princess said.

She could still understand Ma Shiying's compromise.

Many local officials have been killed by robbers, drowning, fire, or even by poisonous snakes that entered the government offices.

Ma Shiying is now using compromise to maintain the dignity of the court. After all, this kind of thing can't happen all the time. Now there are newspapers, and some smart people have discovered the problem. After all, it is a bit exaggerated that three county magistrates died in a year in a county and died in different ways. The current situation is like this. The court has no military force, and the local elders' associations have heavy troops. Besides, even if the people they are not satisfied with don't die, what can they do? They will still be dogs in front of the elders' association.

In that case, just let them choose for themselves!
Wallpapering!
Just make do with it!

"Your Highness, let's go out and relax. Don't let these things bother you."

Mrs. Qian quickly said with a smile.

Yang Feng looked at the scholars on the stage...

"Is this guy a fool?"

He said.

"What does the King of the East Sea mean?"

Mrs. Qian said.

"He criticized women for dressing inappropriately, which was nothing more than exposing too much and wearing strange clothes. But the problem is that men like to see these things. Why did he criticize them? Shouldn't he encourage them to wear less? If it were me, I would encourage them to wear less so that I can see more of their beauty when I go out."

Prince Yang sighed.

The beauties around...

(End of this chapter)